Yvette Audain

Born and resident in Auckland, New Zealand, Yvette is a busy and prolific musical personality. In the classical genre, she has played clarinet for New Zealand Opera and Waitakere City Orchestra, and has recently become an associate saxophonist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO).

Yvette's musical versatility extends to recorder and Irish whistle as well as clarinet and saxophone. She can also be heard in situations ranging from an APO-affiliated early jazz combo (as part of their APOPS education programme), to original folk instrumental trio Doris, to completely free improvisation at Auckland alternative venue the Wine Cellar, and many more situations in between.

Yvette is also continuing to develop her career as a composer - a recent achievement in this area includes having her work read by the Auckland Philharmonia (dir. Marc Taddei) in their 2005 and 2006 workshops. She has a strong background in concert bands, having worked for the Royal New Zealand Navy Band and the Band of the Wellington and Hawkes Bay Regiment, and in 2006 she completed her first commission, when day is gone for concert band (commissioned by Peter Thomas), which was read by the Auckland Wind Orchestra (dir. Ashley Hopkins) at the 2006 NZCBA National Concert Bands Festival. She is contactable and available for further commissions - see contact me.

Yvette has considerable experience as a tutor of all her instruments, both privately and in schools, in both Auckland and Wellington. She continues her involvement in education with a hectic itinerant tutoring schedule (composition, clarinet, saxophone) in several Auckland schools, as well as teaching privately in her Central Auckland home.

Yvette holds a Bachelor of Music in composition and clarinet from the University of Auckland, and a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) in composition and ethnomusicology from Victoria University of Wellington, where she subsequently completed her Master of Music (with Merit) in composition. After being awarded these qualifications, Yvette went on to complete a Graduate Diploma in Teaching (Secondary) from the University of Auckland.

Among the composition scholarships and awards Yvette has received are the Bishop Junior and Senior Scholarships, the Llewellyn Jones Prize in Music for Piano, a graduate scholarship from the New Zealand Federation of University Women, 2nd place in the 1998 Sky City Auckland Wind Orchestra Composers' Competition, and several placings in the Auckland University Composition Prize Concerts.